Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the extremely anticipated second season of the true-crime anthology created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, is lastly out. I spent all the weekend watching the sequence, and after doing so, I’ve fairly a number of ideas. The sequence was 9 episodes of TV that delivered dramatic, stunning, and generally comical moments. However did it present an correct portrayal of the Menendez household? All I can say is that it’s a Ryan Murphy mission.
What precisely do I imply after I say this can be a Ryan Murphy mission? Properly, these of us who watch Murphy’s reveals know that he has a aptitude for the dramatic and tends to take numerous liberties. With Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, it appeared he did that fairly a bit. I wish to be clear as a result of that is such a delicate matter for many individuals and a polarizing story; this evaluate solely displays what I really feel. I’m not making an attempt to sway anybody on their takes. When the Menendez brothers killed their mother and father in 1989, I used to be far too younger to even find out about it. And even after they have been arrested and went to trial within the early 90s, as a result of I used to be a child, it was not one thing I paid consideration to. That being mentioned, I anticipated this season of Monsters to be extra nuanced and that this story could be dealt with with a sure stage of care. Sadly, in some methods, I felt that it wasn’t.
Portrayal of Lyle and Erik
None of us, besides the brothers and their household and pals, know what Lyle and Erik have been like and what they went via rising up, however how they have been portrayed was generally questionable. First, I’ve to provide props to Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as a result of these two have been terrific. As most of you recognize, I’m an enormous supporter of Chavez and have been since his days at Common Hospital as Spencer Cassadine. I had little question he wouldn’t ship a stellar efficiency. Koch was new to me, however he blew me away. I used to be drawn to him from the second episode one started. The best way he performed Erik’s emotional turmoil was painful to look at. It was extremely uncooked and actual. Although Murphy and Brennan did some attention-grabbing issues to his character, they nonetheless made me really feel for him. Lyles’s portrayal did and didn’t try this for me.
Chavez is a implausible actor, and I used to be trying ahead to seeing him carry Lyle to life. He was terrific, particularly in episode seven. Nonetheless, I imagine how his character was written took away from him at some factors. For a lot of the sequence, Lyle was painted as a bully and extremely smug. In contrast to feeling sympathetic to Erik, I ended up disliking Lyle. I don’t know what Lyle was like, and I don’t know if the creators supposed to make Lyle appear like the dangerous man who orchestrated all the homicide plot of killing their mother and father, Kitty (Chloe Sevigny) and Jose (Javier Bardem), however that’s the way it got here throughout. Erik, who launched a press release concerning the sequence, even mentioned that Lyles’s portrayal was inaccurate.
There have been some good moments the place I did really feel one thing for Lyle (the toupee scene and the courtroom scenes, for certain), however for probably the most half, he got here off as manipulative and even merciless to his brother. Given the truth that all of episode 5 was spent with Erik speaking concerning the abuse he endured, I assumed that we’d be given one thing just like Lyle. However, even in these scenes when he did converse to Leslie Abramson (portrayed by the spectacular Ari Graynor) and Jill (Jess Weixler), he got here off as disingenuous and remorseless. I wished to imagine that he was written that approach as if to say he used this habits as a protection mechanism. And which will very effectively have been the case. However, once you watch the trial prep scenes and see Lyle ask if he ought to cry, then he proceeds to cry as if he’s performing, and within the subsequent scene, he’s giving his testimony, you possibly can’t inform.
Over-sexualization of the brothers
These accustomed to the Menendez brother’s story know they got here ahead with allegations of abuse they skilled by the hands of their mother and father. However primarily the sexual abuse from their father. Due to this, we all know that is one thing delicate to showcase. What’s attention-grabbing is that the creators did present care because it pertained to creating certain that they didn’t make us watch the boys being sexually abused. Nonetheless, I’m referring to different issues, significantly with Erik. This isn’t to say that Lyle wasn’t over-sexualized within the sequence as a result of what number of instances can we watch him strolling round in a Speedo? However Erik was extraordinarily, and I do imply extraordinarily, oversexualized. Erik’s’ sexual orientation has all the time been referred to as into query, and albeit, it’s none of our enterprise. However, in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, they leaned closely into the likelihood that Erik was homosexual. However it was accomplished in poor style.
The jail bathe scene between Erik and one other inmate was totally pointless and gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous. It did nothing to maneuver the plot alongside. I’m no prude about nudity so long as it has an actual objective. Particularly if it’s full frontal, this explicit scene served none. Even the one which occurred a lot later within the sequence had me asking, “Why?” and “Who is that this for?” An ideal instance of what I imply after I say actual objective could be Lyles’s bathe scene. And that’s solely as a result of it was a scene during which we see Lyle realizing that his hair is falling out as he’s washing it. And we solely see a part of his physique briefly. I gained’t even get into the opposite scene that was accomplished to point out the viewers the brothers have been rumored to be having an incestuous relationship as a result of, once more, gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous. There’s something to be mentioned about it being simply tremendous to inform us one thing with out feeling like it’s important to present it.
Misplaced the plot
One of many issues that I get pleasure from concerning the Monsters anthology is the components Murphy and Brennan use to inform a narrative. They usually begin episode one with the crime, then we travel between the previous and current. All through the sequence, we see the motivations that led to the crimes being dedicated or what made these folks “monsters.” Once I watched Dahmer, which was additionally controversial, I felt like a narrative was being informed, and it was effectively accomplished. With Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, I assumed we have been on roll till after episode 5. And that was once we misplaced the plot.
Whereas I did perceive that we would have liked to see the dad or mum’s aspect of issues as effectively, episode six didn’t inform me a lot about Kitty and Jose, and it didn’t make me take a look at them any otherwise. It’s not like I knew who they have been, however I questioned what was imagined to occur after that episode ended. Was I imagined to really feel sympathy for them? They only got here off as pissed off mother and father and a pair that had reached the top of their relationship. The backstory felt like filler. Even the stuff in episode seven that gave the impression to be about Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) and his perspective felt off. In all honesty, these scenes may have been scrapped. That brings me to my very very last thing—the story’s pacing.
I don’t know the place Murphy and Brennan pulled their supply materials from to inform this story, however I felt like this season was rushed. Dahmer, season one of many Monster sequence, had ten episodes, however this was solely 9. Contemplating that this season was shorter, extra time ought to have been spent on the brothers. The sequence began robust with the primary 5 episodes, and it actually felt like we have been going someplace. However after that, issues fell off the rails to the purpose that it felt like we have been speeding to the end. The scenes through the brother’s first trial have been participating and emotional, however by episode 9, once we have been again within the courtroom for his or her second trial, I felt as bored as Leslie Abramson and Erik taking part in hangman.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story had some stable moments and a few robust appearing, which was the principle factor that saved this sequence for me. Nonetheless, the writing may have been quite a bit higher. And I used to be anticipating a lot extra from the story. I hoped this sequence was not going to sensationalize a case that has been already for many years. Once I take a look at Murphy’s sequence like Feud and even the primary season of Monster, I ponder why this one didn’t have that very same stage of storytelling. I do know that is a type of tales that might not finish on a excessive word with a reasonably ribbon tied to seal it up. In any case, this can be a actual story about actual individuals who dedicated a horrible act as a result of they felt it was their solely choice. By the top of the sequence, relying on the way you interpret the ultimate scene, the viewer is basically informed that Kitty and Jose are the harmless ones and that Lyle and Erik are, the truth is, monsters. A minimum of, that’s the way it felt to me. I’m undecided what the final word aim was in telling the story of the Menendez brothers this fashion, however it missed the mark in some ways.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming now on Netflix.